DEARER TEA

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 62, 15 March 1933, Page 10

DEARER TEA

SALES TAX AND EXCHANGE

A number of New Zealand packers of well-known brands of tea have been compelled to raise the prices of their teas by 2d per pound. This has been to meet the imposition of the sales tax. The price of tea was advanced before the sales tax was collected, however, owing to the upturn of the market in Ceylon and other producing countries. But raising the rate of exchange Ne^v Zealand on London to 25 per, cent. added to its cost by the time it landed in New Zealand. Packers, it is stated, carried these charges, i.e., higher prices and higher exchange, but when the sales tax was put on the prices had to bo advanced. Tea is probably the national beverage of New Zealand, and if it has failed to cheer in these depressing times, it is still innocent of any charge of- inebriating. • The imports of tea to this Dominion last year amounted to nearly 10,500,000 lbs for a population of 1,500,000. For 1931 the imports were 12,116,0001b. Ceylon has practically a monopoly of the New Zealand market.- Tea imports in value during 1932 we're as follows:— Ceylon '. £336,025 India 39,470 China 3,109 Other countries 79 £378,683 Ceylon teas have a preference of 2d per lb duty compared with sd, the general duty on tea. Those with a taste for the Oolongs, Boheas, Congous, Hang Mees, and Jasmine and roseloaf scented teas of China contribute 5d duty in the price whereas the consumer of the teas of Ceylon gets off with 2d duty. Tea, then, has its taxes no less thanbeer, and what with sales tax and exchange arid, in any case, higher prices in countries of origin, tea no doubt may have to be used a little less lavishly than in times past. The report of the. Imperial Economic Committee on Tea, 1931, revealed- • a wide range in the per capita consumption of tea in the chief tea drinking countries of the world. Contrary to general belief, the Commission found that the United Kingdom had the highest consumption per head, with Australia second on the list, and New Zealand third. Eussia and India are well down on the list. ' ■ The following taken from the report shows the total and average consumption per head of the principal tea-drink-ing countries:— ' Total consumption Consumption in million per head United Kiiißdom - 421" o qS° Unltod States 89 ■ % S a ...::::::::::::;; ?? ' \ '■% Australia 49 a\ Canada -v 39 !\ew Zealand !•> r'i Germany 12 , F«>nce ' 3 1